SHARE
COPY LINK

IMMIGRATION

Immigrants central to swelling population

Sweden’s foreign-born population is expected to reach 14 percent by the end of 2008, a year in which the country’s overall population had its greatest increase since 1970.

Immigrants central to swelling population

In the last decade, the Sweden’s foreign-born population has grown by 27 percent, as measured as a percentage of Sweden’s total population, according to Statistics Sweden.

If people born in Sweden to two foreign-born parents are added to the mix, the total comes to 378,000 people, or nearly 20 percent of Sweden’s overall population.

The 108,000 Iraqis now living in Sweden comprise the second largest group of foreign-born residents in the country behind natives of Finland, of which there are 176,000.

During the past year, 102,000 people immigrated to Sweden, a 2 percent increase from 2007.

Immigration from Iraq was down 21 percent from the year 2007, but still remained strong with an estimated 12,000 Iraqis entering Sweden in 2008.

Statistics Sweden estimates that the country’s overall population will reach 9,259,000 by December 31st, 2008, an increase of 76,000 for the year and the largest jump since 1970.

In addition to immigration, Sweden’s robust birth rate also helped push up the country’s population in 2008 as 109,000 babies were born, 2,000 more than the year before. A higher number of births than deaths in Sweden in 2008 account for 19,000 of the people added to Sweden’s population during the year.

Sweden also lost 26,000 citizens to emigration in 2008, with four in ten choosing to head to Norway, the United States, or the United Kingdom.

In addition, 44,000 non-Swedish citizens left the country, most of who returned to their countries of origin, resulting in a record net immigration for the year of 57,000 people.

IMMIGRATION

France ‘will not welcome migrants’ from Lampedusa: interior minister

France "will not welcome migrants" from the island, Gérald Darmanin has insisted

France 'will not welcome migrants' from Lampedusa: interior minister

France will not welcome any migrants coming from Italy’s Lampedusa, interior minister Gérald Darmanin has said after the Mediterranean island saw record numbers of arrivals.

Some 8,500 people arrived on Lampedusa on 199 boats between Monday and Wednesday last week, according to the UN’s International Organisation for
Migration, prompting European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen to travel there Sunday to announce an emergency action plan.

According to Darmanin, Paris told Italy it was “ready to help them return people to countries with which we have good diplomatic relations”, giving the
example of Ivory Coast and Senegal.

But France “will not welcome migrants” from the island, he said, speaking on French television on Tuesday evening.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has called on Italy’s EU partners to share more of the responsibility.

The recent arrivals on Lampedusa equal more than the whole population of the tiny Italian island.

The mass movement has stoked the immigration debate in France, where political parties in the country’s hung parliament are wrangling over a draft law governing new arrivals.

France is expected to face a call from Pope Francis for greater tolerance towards migrants later this week during a high-profile visit to Mediterranean city Marseille, where the pontiff will meet President Emmanuel Macron and celebrate mass before tens of thousands in a stadium.

SHOW COMMENTS